


Brighten Up the Darkest Place

by samyazaz



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Friendship, Gen, Puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 07:08:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samyazaz/pseuds/samyazaz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Gwen is feeling blue, and Merlin and Arthur take it upon themselves to cheer her up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brighten Up the Darkest Place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flammablehat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flammablehat/gifts).



> For [Carly](http://archiveofourown.org/users/flammablehat). Happy birthday, darling!

Merlin lasts approximately half a week in the face of Gwen's sudden downcast mood, and even that feels like an eternity. It's getting to be the holidays, and it's her first one without either her dad or her brother around, and he figures that she's allowed to be a little blue about that. It's just that Merlin _can't bear it_. She's usually a ray of sunshine brightening up the coffee shop where they work together, and it's breaking his heart to see the way the corners of her mouth turn down in a sad little frown when she's standing at the espresso machine and thinks no one's noticing, or the way her breath hitches a little bit and her fake smile turns brittle around the edges when a song comes over the radio that makes her think of Elyan.

"Let's put out some samples," Merlin suggests brightly when he catches the ghost of grief passing across her face halfway through the week. "We got those new pumpkin bars in that customers are going to love."

The pumpkin bars are Gwen's favorite, and she bounces her way through every summer in eager anticipation of when the weather turns and they can start transitioning over to their fall menu. And cutting the bars up into tiny squares for samples always means there are little misshaped bits and pieces of crust leftover that the staff gets to divide between themselves.

Merlin pushes all the scraps over to Gwen and watches sidelong as she bites into a corner piece and smiles to herself as she sucks a smear of filling off of her thumb.

"No one's going to buy those if you keep putting them out for free," Arthur says two days later, when Merlin's manning the register while Gwen surreptitiously snacks on the leftovers from yet another plate of samples.

"We're already sold out for the day," Merlin says brightly. "So shut up."

There are perks to dating the boss, and not having to pussy-foot around things or hold his tongue for fear of his job is definitely one of them. Arthur just lifts his brows and gives him an unimpressed look.

"It's the holidays," Merlin says, with an exaggerated look that tells Arthur what a dunce he is for not realizing the problem, or it's source. "And with Tom, and now Elyan... She's sad. I'm just trying to cheer her up."

Arthur gives him a look like he's thinking too hard, then turns and squints at Gwen with that same expression. "Stop giving away our food," he says at last. "That might cheer her up, but it's not going to make her happy."

Merlin just snorts and goes around the counter to restock the straw dispenser. "You know that, do you?" She was Merlin's friend first, and longest. If anyone knows what she needs, it's Merlin.

"Food only cheers you up for a minute. She needs something that'll last."

Merlin just raises a brow at him over his shoulder. "Got any ideas, then, genius?"

"Sure," Arthur says. "Like a puppy."

"A _puppy?_ " Merlin turns around fully to gape at him. "Are you out of your mind? Haven't you seen any of those public service announcements about not buying people animals for the holidays, because they might not want the burden and then they'll just end up at the pound? You can't just saddle someone with an obligation like that. How is that going to cheer her up?"

"Pets have been scientifically proven to reduce tension and improve mood."

Merlin just stares at him for a moment. "I always thought she was more of a cat person."

" _Merlin_." Arthur gives him a pitying look.

"She always leaves food out for the strays in her neighborhood."

"That's called not being an asshole." Arthur grabs up a rag and starts wiping down the counters. "I'm telling you. You want to cheer her up, get her a puppy."

#

Merlin remains dubious, and Arthur remains just as serenely, infuriatingly confident as ever. When Merlin makes her a latte while she's on break one day, and makes a cat face design with the steamed milk, she smiles brighter than he's seen her do in weeks and proclaims over how adorable it is until Merlin shoots Arthur an I-told-you-so look over her shoulder.

When a customer comes in with a chocolate lab puppy in training to be a seeing eye dog, Gwen squeaks louder than Merlin thought she was capable of, abandons the napkin holders she was refilling, and drops down to her knees to give him kisses and coo over his _fuzzy widdle face_.

Merlin turns around in time to see Arthur's knowing smirk, and he's at least man enough to know when it's time to admit defeat. Gwen is a dog person, it seems. And he can't even be bitter about losing, because that puppy made her smile brighter than he's seen her do in months.

#

Of course, deciding to get Gwen a puppy is only the very first decision that needs to be made, and they approach the rest with the focus and determination of a general planning an invasion. Merlin prints off summaries of breed characteristics and drops the whole pile onto Arthur's lap while he's watching TV and declares they need to start doing their research. They send Gwen emails filled with pictures of puppies with funny captions and take note of which ones she responds most favorably to. They debate breed characteristics and Gwen's needs, and when it all feels too overwhelming, they set up a tournament bracket on a big whiteboard in their living room and start pitting one breed against its competitor, until after a full week of living, breathing, and sleeping puppies, they decide on a golden retriever as the very best choice for Gwen.

#

It only takes them another week to find a reputable local breeder with a little just about old enough to start to be placed in homes, which Merlin considers quite a victory. Arthur seems a bit too gung-ho about the whole thing, but Merlin absolutely draws the line at actually shoving an animal into Gwen's arms and telling her it's her responsibility now, so instead, they make all the arrangements necessary, and then Arthur closes up shop one Saturday and they kidnap Gwen and drive out of the city to the sprawling property where the breeder and her dogs live.

Gwen looks dubious the whole drive, and then increasingly suspicious as the sidewalks and subdivisions of the city fall away to the rolling green hills just beyond its limits. Merlin keeps an eye on her in the rear view mirror, just in case she gets mutinous and decides to duck and roll right out of the moving car, and she starts to look like maybe she thinks both of them have gone completely off their rockers.

There's a gate across the driveway in front of the breeder's home, and when Merlin hops out to swing it open, and then closed again after Arthur's pulled the car through, he can hear the excited baying of dogs in the distance, and he can't help but grin.

"Come on, Gwen." He opens her door and pulls at her seatbelt. "Come on out and say hi."

She climbs out, shaking her head at him like she thinks it's just so sad that he's lost his marbles at such a young age. "Who exactly am I saying hi—"

She doesn't get to finish her sentence, because a whole heard of golden retrievers come barreling around the corner of the house and racing at them, tongues lolling and their barks turning high and excited as they focus their attention on the three of them.

The dogs envelop them like a furry, wriggling avalanche. Merlin grabs onto Arthur, who's got his back braced against the car, but they surround Gwen entirely and knock her backwards onto her butt with the force of their greeting. And then there's just shrieks of laughter as the dogs pile on top of her, wiggling and shoving themselves under her hands and licking her face like they're best friends already.

It's only a moment before their owner comes jogging out to take charge of them, and they're well-trained enough to back off from Gwen at a single command, but by then her clothes are already covered in a light dusting of fur and she's leaning back on her hands and just laughing like she'll never stop.

"Sorry about that!" The breeder, whose name is Rose, wades through them to offer Gwen a hand up. "We weren't expecting company so soon or I'd have had them in the house so you wouldn't get accosted like that. You must be Gwen."

"Yes, I—" Gwen goes abruptly silent as she gets her feet under her and gives Rose a squinty-eyed look of confused suspicion. "What's going on here?"

Rose just smiles at her and claps her on the shoulder. "Come on into the back and meet our babies."

_Babies?_ Gwen mouths, raising her eyebrows at Merlin. He considers mentioning that this was literally all Arthur's idea, but she's already following after Rose, so he decides to leave it be.

Out back, there's a large penned-in area where a dozen fluffy puppies are wrestling and yapping at each other. Gwen's face goes soft the instant she sees them. "Oh my goodness," she murmurs, stepping over the pen, and sinks down to be smothered by the enthusiastic balls of fluff.

They clamber all over each other to lick her face and nip at her hands and squirm around on her lap. Gwen laughs helplessly and buries her face in the fur of one of the puppies that worked its way into her arms. "What _is_ this?" she asks, clearly bewildered even with her voice muffled by puppy.

"It's an early Christmas present," Arthur says from behind Merlin. "If you want it."

She looks up at them and she looks heartbroken. "My apartment—"

"We already cleared it with your landlord," Merlin says. "All he wants is an extra pet deposit, and we already gave him that. And we bought bowls for you, and a leash, and a dog bed, and toys, and pretty much half of the pet store, really. You don't have to do anything but decide which one you want."

The one in her arms has wriggled in close and leaned its chin against her shoulder, watching Merlin and Arthur with wide eyes as he wags his tail in a rhythmic thump against Gwen's thigh. She wraps her arms around his body and presses her face against the side of his neck.

"I'm going to name him Pumpkin," she says. He licks her ear like he approves, and she hugs him tight and _laughs_ , and Merlin doesn't even mind conceding defeat to Arthur about this. He was totally right. This was exactly what she needed.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Brighten Up The Darkest Places](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5594860) by [RsCreighton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RsCreighton/pseuds/RsCreighton)




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